After 8+ years with my original STF-1 I finally found another one posted on Kijiji in perfect shape! I just love this little sub.

Now that I have 2 x STF-1's for my 2.1 Stereo's in the Family Room and Living Room I want to purchase another HSU sub for the Great Room. This is the largest of the rooms that my STF-1 has served years of music and home theatre duty in. This room is approximately 12 x 16 with a large opening to the stairwell (this room is over the garage).

As you may have noticed I don't need a lot of room shaking bass. We also don't do surround sound. Only 2.1. My wife hates surround sound. So I'm considering the VTF-1 or VTF-2 which, from the specs, should be a big upgrade from the STF-1 power/impact wise.

We don't listen to movies very loud, music can get to half 3/4 volumes when we are socializing with a dozen people over.

Questions:

1. Which one will be more "musical". Meaning, tight bass (I hate boomy flatulent bass) with fast transitions. I've always loved how the STF-1 makes easy work of complex musical bass transitions with composure and without getting boomy.

2. At low to medium volumes, will these subs put the same happy grin on my face while listening to all my various music favourites that the little STF-1 does?

3. Other than getting an extra few Hz in the low end, are there any other benefits to the VTF-2 over the VTF-1.

1. Both subs are designed to be very accurate and musical, so it comes down to how much clean headroom you need.
2 and 3. What kind of music do you listen to? Do you dimensions of the room that its going in? Does that room open up to other areas or is it completely dedicated?

Regarding music, a real mixed bag. In the 8-9 years since I've had the STF-1 my girls have grown into teenagers. I love a bit of everything and my kids are total opposites. One loves top 40, the other alternative from any of the past 30 years.

I love everything, AC/DC, Tragically hip, Twenty One Pilots, Neil Young, Johny Cash, U2, Enya, Matt Nathanson, The Frights, Green Day, O.A.R, Dizzy, and the list goes on and on. I don't discriminate on genre, heck I'm currently on a real binge of new country lol

Oh my, I just downloaded your setup/owners' guide for the STF-1 and went through the setup anew. What a difference! Even more action from this little sub!

I had it too close to the wall. Pulled it out to about 11 inches on back and side from the corner and the bass got tighter, more defined and more bass. Had the crossover set too high @90Hz. The mains run around 55-60, so I dialed the crossover to 65Hz.

Do you recommend facing the rear port into the corner of the wall, meaning pointed at where the two walls join/meet? Or should it always be at right/90 degree angles to the wall and not 45 degrees.

Any additional setup/placement recommendations would be appreciated, along with the original topic discussion.

Thanks! I would say for that room, two VTF-1 Mk3's should be OK. Most of the music material stated doesn't really dig that low, so in terms of the extension of the VTF-2 Mk5, it may not be as noticeable. Most top 40 songs or classic rock/alternative/pop/country don't really dig much deeper than 30 Hz. Unless you start venturing into dubstep/EDM, pipe organ music, then the VTF-2 Mk5 would probably be a better bet. Another thing to consider is how much clean headroom you need. If you and your girls like to turn up your system and play at moderately loud playback levels every once in a while, then the VTF-2 Mk5 may end up being the better option. In two ports open mode, it would give you very similar extension to the VTF-1 Mk3, but play significantly louder and cleaner with less port noise and compression. In terms of whether these subs would be an improvement over your current one, they can be. Other than the extension aspect, if you tend to listen to low to moderate levels, the STF-1's may be OK, but if you play any sub loud enough, it will start to compress and sound less full and it would also sound like it's hitting a wall in its performance. Yea sometimes having the sub closer to the wall will cause boundary gain, so your deeper bass can be boosted significantly over the mid, which would make the sub sound boomy. With our newer subs, they do have EQ and Q control functions that will tame the lower bass but can also be used to improve your dynamic range as well. In terms of the port facing the wall, it may not matter too much, but I would keep the port at least 3" away from the wall. Where are you seated in that room?

I picked up my second STF-1 today and decided to put it upstairs in dual sub duty using the L and R line inputs. Meaning, the left sub connected to left line in and the right sub connected to right line in. I assume this is the desired connections when setting up dual subs.

Regarding the room layout, I drew something up to help visualize. The ceilings are 8 feet high. The opening to the stairwell has stairs going down to the main floor and stairs going to the second floor. The Great Room is on a split level over the garage, closer to the second floor height than the main floor. The stairwell ceiling is level with the second floor ceiling which goes up another 2 feet higher than the Great Room ceiling, for a total of 10 feet high.

I previously had the STF-1 in the right corner and it sounded great. I haven't had a chance to test and play with the dual sub setup just yet. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I am still considering a new sub to move the STF-1 to the other rooms in the house, replacing lesser quality subs in those rooms. For now I think I'm going to try the dual sub setup for learning purposes.

Oh my (again)!! How can anyone ever go back to single sub after a properly setup dual sub config!? I'm in sub nirvana right now.

So it looks like I will need to buy TWO new subs LOL.

So all your recommendations going forward should be considering two subs. There is no way I can go back to a single sub after hearing this dual STF-1 setup. I am just floored that at 46 years old I am getting my first taste of dual stereo sub setup. Any recommendations for the config of these STF-1's would be appreciated along with new subs.

I also added some picture of the room for perspective. Not a very big room. The two STF-1 subs really fill it nicely.

With your analysis above regarding the music I listen to, and the fact that the VTF-1 goes a few DB deeper than the STF-1's, I suspect they would be a huge upgrade in this room, especially going with 2.

Thanks for the pictures! Yea it looks like two VTF-1 Mk3's should work nicely in that room. Great thing is that you are up against the back wall so that will likely give you a pretty good amount of boundary gain at your listening position. I would run the VTF-1 Mk3's with 1 port open, EQ 1, Q.5 for both. In terms of placement, one on the left and one on the right should be good. I think the way you have it set up right now should be good. Again, your listening preferences in output is also a factor. With two VTF-1 Mk3's, that should be good if you listen to soft to moderately loud levels. If you tend to listen to loud output levels, I would go with the VTF-2 Mk5's to be on the safe side. In terms of hooking up the subs, I'm not quite sure if that's correct. It seems ok, but you generally wouldn't hook up a line input to the sub. What processor are you using?

For duals, you can look to the discounted package called the dualdrive. It's listed right under the single price.

Regarding the connections, I have a standard analog stereo amp with no pre-outs. Just high level speaker outs. So I ran the L speaker high level out to the L sub's L high level IN, then the L high level OUT to the left speaker. Same for the right side using the right high level IN and OUT.

I did purchase a pre-amp crossover unit that's on its' way, a Rolls SX45, which will allow me to use the RCA IN on the subs. I'll use the pre-amps L and R low frequency out to each of the L and R subwoofers for real stereo low frequency output. I assume with this crossover pre-amp I'll disable the sub's crossover and control the crossover cutoff via the SX45.

It does sound amazing right now. But it always does until I find a better way to set them up :P

Oh I see what you're doing. Yea that's perfectly fine. Really the subs do not distinguish Left and Right, so technically you don't necessarily have to run to the corresponding channel on the high level inputs. If you want to run from the Left speaker out channel on your amp to the right high level input on the sub it doesn't make a difference.

Not too familiar with the Rolls SX45, but the from what I can tell, you are exactly right in terms of how you integrate the subs with that system.

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